I have to admit I love my Palm Lifedrive.

I love the fact that I can load every document in my Windows documents folder, and still have room to spare on it's hardrive.

I love the fact that it has built in bluetooth and wifi, and I can just about connect to the Internet, ANYWHERE.

Unlike most people, I even love its size. As a man with big hands, I like holding something of substance. The LD is big enough to fit comfortably in my hands.

What I don't like, is that the LD is probably the most finicky Palm device I have ever owned or used. Just installing a new piece of software on it is a freaking adventure. Just doing so can cause a reset, if there is ANY conflict at all with the installed software, the LD will start acting flaky or even reset.

I have owned just about every model of Palm PDA since the original Palm Pilot, (With the exception of the smartphones and a few of the new models like the TX), and find the Lifedrive to be the most useful of all the devices, (when it works). The worst thing about the Lifedrive is that when it does reset, it takes over two minutes for the OS to load. This problem is due to the fact that the LD uses a 64MB partition on the built in 4GB hard drive as RAM. Every time the unit needs to reboot, it must load the OS and OS state into this partition, rather than physical memory.

Many believe that this memory scheme is also to blame for the general stability issues of the Lifedrive.

All I can say is that when she works, (Sometimes for weeks at a time without a hiccup), she is an incredible piece of hardware.

Yes, I have experienced the notorious Lifedrive Lag, which can be attributed to the PDA reading applications and data from the hard drive, into the hard drive based memory. There is a program called Sharkcache, which has all but eliminated this lag.


There are a number of other issues as well, including problems with the built in Blazer web browser. I just don't use it. There is a marvelous alternative browser called Xiino, that is in my opinion far superior.

I can live with most of the foibles of the LD, except when it hits a snag and starts the seemingly random resets. Troubleshooting is almost impossible at times, with error messages indicating the culprit application (The one that crashed the unit), but no idea how to eliminate the problem.

Often the only way to eliminate a problem is to have several sets of backups of your unit while it is working, and to do a hard reset and restore until you get a stable unit. I use Resco Backup for this purpose, and it has saved my bacon on more than one occasion. Resco has a SWEET suite (pun intended) set of utilities that really enhance your handheld experience, and I am a faithful customer.

I have managed to work around most of my problems using Brighthand's wonderful forums. My latest reset problem took me several days and several hard resets and restores from backup, before I discovered a solution lurking in the Brighthand forums.

My overall verdict after using the Lifedrive for six months?

It's nice to be able to carry around a ton of documents, including PDF and Microsoft Office files. It's also nice to be able to leave my iPod at home, and use the multimedia capabilities of the LD to listen to music or watch movies. Agendus Pro and Agendus Mail keep me organized and connected via email and SMS, and the Agendus Outlook plugin is one of the best on the market. All of these applications work flawlessly and compliment the power and capacity of the Lifedrive. For example. I have about three months worth of mail stored on my Lifedrive, for easy reference.


The flip side is the instability at times. When the unit is stable, it is a real pleasure to use, and a real WOW factor when I whip it out at a client meeting. But when it reboots during the meeting and takes 2-3 minutes to reload... Well, you get the idea.

Will I keep it? I am not sure. I am still working on getting a Treo 650. If I do, I will be loathe to carry two devices with me. But then again, there is always room in my gadget bag!

It would however be nice to just carry one device...

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Posted by: Brian at July 12, 2006 06:50 PM

Posted by: David Scott Anderson at July 12, 2006 07:55 PM